Efforts are being made to introduce the local government system in Islamabad. The system could not be launched in the capital city of Pakistan due to a dispute between the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and the mighty bureaucracy over division of powers.
The rural ICT has been divided into 12 union councils. As far as development is concerned, most of the union councils have been neglected by the district administration/CDA except for Koral that is the biggest and most developed union council.
Former president Pervez Musharraf had on Dec 31, 1999 included the Local Government Ordinance for a period of 10 years in the Constitution that will stand cancelled on Dec 31, 2009. Despite his strong dictatorial rule, Musharraf could not implement his own ordinance in the capital during his eight-year rule.
Islamabad High Court (IHC) had also directed the interior and local government ministries to make legislation within 15 days for introduction of Local Government (LG) system in the federal capital, but it could not be done due to the differences between the CDA and Interior Ministry over distribution of powers.
The first LG elections were held in 2000 throughout the country except Islamabad, all cantonments and Northern Areas. At that time the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) had announced that LG polls in these areas would be held in the second phase but these areas remained without LG system even in the second LG elections held in 2005. The next LG polls will be held this year if the system remained in force.
The NRB and the Interior Ministry have been passing the buck on to each other for not holding the LG polls in Islamabad. The NRB claimed that it had completed all arrangements for holding LG polls in the capital but the Interior Ministry was reluctant.
The Interior Ministry had reportedly conveyed some reservations to the NRB about the holding of LG polls in the capital. The ministry was of the view that because of presence of a large number of diplomatic community, parliamentarians and bureaucrats, the local government system should not be introduced in the capital.
The armed forces too had some reservations about the Local Government Ordinance earlier promulgated specifically for the cantonment areas which was amended according to their demand.
All necessary arrangements have been completed to hold LG elections in Islamabad, but the district administration is waiting for the election schedule that will be issued by the Interior Ministry.
The government has decided to revamp the LG system introduced by Pervez Musharraf in 2001 to replace the 150-year old magistracy system, sources say.
The government believes that local government elections should be held on party basis and audit and accounts of LG institutions should be the provincial subjects.
In 2005, the Ministry of Interior divided the ICT into 40 union councils — 26 union councils in urban areas and 14 union councils in the rural areas. However, the union council system is yet to be implemented.
In this regard when Federal Minister for Local Government and Rural Development Justice (retired) Abdul Razaak Thaheem was contacted, he said the federal government was under supervision of the Interior Ministry. He said the government wanted introduction of the local government system and was making new laws in this regard.
The Ministry of Local Government has directed the Interior Ministry to prepare a formal draft and send it at the earliest. Additional Secretary Interior Zafar Abbasi said that the case was pending with Islamabad High Court. “Since the country’s law and order situation is quite grave, the local government elections could not be held in the current circumstances,” he said.
Chairman CDA Imtiaz Inayat Elahi said that he had just took the charge of his office adding that the authority was earlier under the supervision of Interior Ministry but now it was working under the Cabinet Division. He said there were issues which must have been solved as they occurred before his appointment to the post. Elahi said he was not in a position to say anything in this regard.
Secretary Election Commission Kanwar Dilshad said that the introduction of LG system in the capital was still undecided. He said the matter was pending with the Interior Ministry thus more work had to be done in this regard. “The elections will be held in the federal capital after the Interior Ministry’s nod,” he said.
Meanwhile, PML-N MNA from Islamabad Tariq Fazal Chaudhry said that the CDA had become a white elephant and was opposed to the division of powers. He said if the LG system could be introduced all over the country then what was keeping the government from introducing it Islamabad.
He said there was no big problem in the system’s implementation in Islamabad. He made it clear that most of the capitals in the world were working under this system. He said 80 percent of the people living in the rural areas of Islamabad had no gas facility while 5 to 10 percent were still without power.
